Raleigh police investigate shooting near north Raleigh preschool

Raleigh police are investigating a shooting that sent one person to the hospital Friday afternoon near Girasol Montessori preschool on Oak Park Road, in a part of north Raleigh where families, transit riders and nearby businesses move through the same streets. Officers were called around 5 p.m. to the 6100 block of St. Giles Road, and police said the victim suffered life-threatening injuries.

The school was closed when the shooting happened, so it did not interrupt pickup or drop-off at Girasol Montessori preschool. Even so, the location of the violence put the case squarely in a neighborhood setting that many parents associate with routine errands, childcare and a normal end-of-week commute.

By Friday evening, police had not released a suspect description or a possible motive. The victim also had not been identified. The case remained in its early stages, with investigators still sorting out what led to the gunfire near Oak Park Road and, as ABC11 reported, near the Glenwood Avenue corridor as well.

The scene sits in a stretch of north Raleigh that includes residential streets, a preschool, church property and a listed GoRaleigh stop. Hoodline reported the intersection is near St. Giles Presbyterian Church and on GoRaleigh Route 6, which broadens the reach of the incident beyond one block. For nearby families, that means the shooting landed in a place tied to daily routines, not just a random address on a map.

The concern is sharper because the area has already seen other police responses involving gunfire. WRAL reported a separate March 27, 2026 incident on St. Giles Street near Deep Hollow Drive, when a shot was fired on a GoRaleigh bus and no one was injured. WRAL said that case was one of three separate March incidents involving GoRaleigh buses, adding to anxiety around the corridor.

Raleigh police say their public crime data can be viewed through a crime-mapping tool and open-data portal, resources that may be useful for residents tracking activity near St. Giles Road, Oak Park Road and Glenwood Avenue. The Police Department says its goal is to make Raleigh one of the safest cities in the United States, but Friday’s shooting left one person fighting for recovery and left neighbors with another reason to question how safe the area feels.